Japanese emergency services struggled for hours on Tuesday to rescue the driver of a truck that plunged into a sinkhole near Tokyo. 

Authorities in Yashio City, Saitama, received calls around 9:50 am (0050 GMT) saying that a road had caved in and a lorry had fallen.

"We have been carrying out a rescue operation ever since," a fire department spokesperson told AFP around seven hours later.

He added that they estimate the sinkhole is about 10 metres (33 feet) wide and six metres (20 feet) deep. 

"Now, we're trying to see if we can pull up the truck using a large crane," he said.   

"There is risk that the hole will collapse."

The driver was able to talk with rescuers until around 1:00 pm but they retreated after the area around the hole became unstable, the spokesperson said.

The team initially planned to rescue the driver by going into the sinkhole, but two members were mildly injured while attempting to do so.

A sewer system runs through the vicinity of the intersection, and the cause of the road collapse is under investigation, Kyodo News reported.